I'd rather be having a quiet drink... and can be followed on Twitter @alcothusiast; and friended on Untappd (handle: "neilcake" - all welcome).

Tuesday, 10 May 2016

Highland Black 8 vs the World... of Blended Scotch

This week’s post
unites a few themes from previous months – Aldi vs Lidl and The Standard Supermarket Blend Testspring
most readily to mind – so let me fill you in on what’s going on. Many years
ago, when I had less money and I hadn’t become interested in spirits yet, I
used to buy the occasional bottle of Highland
Black 8 blended scotch from Aldi. I believe it was £8.99 the first time. I
couldn’t even afford to buy one every month at that point – or I didn’t place
enough importance on purchase of spirits to do so (I was going out far more
often, to be fair… and buying other…things) – but I’d try to add a bottle to
the shopping from time to time, which I would enjoy over ice when I could.

Time went by and in
a round about way, those bottles of Highland Black, via a bottle of Wild Turkey
101, led to an interest in spirits. I think I started telling people I liked
whisky, and my sister may have started buying me a bottle for Christmas…
anyway, the details more or less escape me now. The point is, I’ve tried so
many different whiskies now, that I had started to wonder what I would think of
the Highland Black if I ever tried it again. Now I’ve finally decided to find
out by conducting a series of versus experiments.
I will be comparing it, one at a time with some blended whiskies of a similar
class, and one or two that I just happen to have in, for a bit of variety.
Let’s briefly meet our cast of characters

Highland Black 8

8 years old, bottled
exclusively for Aldi, no further meaningful information available… it looks the
part at least. Kind of. I really wanted to include this in the aforementioned
supermarket test, but it fell outside the criteria – which, if you remember
were that it had to be available in 35cl and classifiable as “standard”. It
doesn’t come in a half size bottle, and its proudly displayed “8 years”, pushes
it up a category above standard. This time I paid £12.99 for 70cl.

Stepping outside of
the realm of blended scotch for a minute, we come to what I would consider
equivalent in an Irish blend.
I’d been saving the last little bit for this experiment. It was £16 (for 70cl) when
I bought it.

McKendrick’s

The winner of the
aforementioned Standard Supermarket Blend Test.This is the second time
then, that I’ve bought this particular blend, and it’s a pleasure to have it
back to see how it stacks up against some different competition. It has
increased in price since the last time I bought it, by 25p to £6.75 for the
35cl.

Bells

I consider this to
be the standard blend that all supermarket blends are based on, and that
everyone has surely tried – if you haven’t tried Bell’s, your whisky education
can never be complete. Found, it seems in every pub, newsagent, working men’s
club, supermarket and duty free shop in the world, I haven’t tried it since
well before starting this blog – before getting into spirits – so I’m very keen
to find out what I think of it now. It was £12 for 70cl and is apparently
blended from Caol Ila, Glenkinchie, Blair Athol, Dufftown and Inchgower malts –
among many others no doubt, as well as a bunch of grain whiskies. Why those
five malts are singled out I don’t know.

It receives generally
positive reviews on TWE – except this one; “This just left me wondering
how they got the cat to squat on the bottle.”

And this one, “Bells
is great, if you were planning on committing suicide and had nothing else to
drink. Even then you would wish your last drink had been a good one!There is no
satisfaction when you drink it (other that the extra cash you have in your back
pocket).”

It seems though that
people seem to think it has improved over the past several years – since I
tried it last, probably.

MoM reviews on
the other hand are mostly negative, with one reviewer blaming it for his dad’s
sneezing. Someone else mentioned sneezing, but not as a bad thing. “Better than
no scotch” says another. Others are far less kind.

A lot of people ask
why this is the most popular blend in the UK. I would suggest it’s because it’s
pretty much the cheapest name brand. I don’t think people quite trust
supermarket own brands, so they just go with Bell’s because it is well known –
I mean, why do young people drink Foster’s? Exactly.

I ended up opening
the Bell’s before the start of the contest. I had developed a cold by the weekend
in question, so real tasting was to be out of the question. I still needed to
drink something, so I thought I’d go for this. I have to say, I may not have
been in full possession of my tasting faculties, but the Bell’s went down very
well indeed. It’s sweet and full of flavour, gives good fumes and manages to
avoid any of that burning roughness that
I generally associate with blends at the low to low-mid end of the pricing
spectrum. It’s uncomplicated but not lacking in complexity – a whisky you can
enjoy frequently.

My friend Phil, who
was joining me actually guessed it was a Highland Park, but he hadn’t tasted
any whisky for a good few months, and I hadn’t given him any clue as to what
genre of whisky I was giving him.

Anyway, let’s not
get ahead of ourselves. There are still some more blends to introduce you to…

Kenmore

Like the Highland
Black, I had wanted to be able to include Marks and Spencer’s slightly above
basic blend in the Standard Supermarket Blend Test, but it had to be excluded because
of it’s 5 year old age statement. There is a proper basic one with no age
statement, but last time I didn’t get it because they don’t do a half bottle,
and this time I didn’t get it because the Kenmore fits better alongside Aldi’s
aged product. It retailed at the time at £16, but my voucher made it £12. It is
tastefully presented, but is unusual in that it lists all the ingredients used
in its production – including that of caramel for colouring.

Queen Margot 5

Not being a regular
at Lidl, I was expecting to bring home a standard Queen Margot, but it turns out they do a 5 year old for £12.89, so
I had to get that. Then, the next day, I learned there’s even an 8 year old, though I didn’t see it when
I was there. I started thinking I’d have to take the 5 year old back and
exchange it, but then I started imagining it all going wrong – like maybe they
wouldn’t have it and I’d try to leave the store without anything, and security
would stop me, and I’d be like, “I was going to swap this, but you didn’t have
the thing I was going to swap it for. Look I have the receipt”, but the receipt
was 2 days old and security would be like, “just cos you bought one the other
day doesn’t mean you weren’t trying to steal this one today”, and it would be
very embarrassing because the shop would be all full of students getting their
cheap food in and I would have been embarrassed about trying to swap it at the
checkout anyway. The queue was way beyond the booze aisle when I bought it in
the first place, and I’d have to join the queue with nothing, just to get a
chance to see if they had the 8 year old at all. It’s kind of embarrassing,
buying booze in Lidl, in front of students, at my age.

So in the end I
decided I’d stick with the 5 year old. It was roughly the same price as Aldi’s
Highland Black anyway, so it is still comparable.

A bit fancier, this
one. We should really expect this one to stand apart with ease given that it’s
just on the verge of what I’d called the premium
blend category. I bought it in duty free, where it was £29.48 for a litre
(converted from euros).

Hankey Bannister Original

A very late entry to
the competition, thanks to the generosity of my friend David who picked this up
from Duty Free in Egypt. I know I’d heard of it before through one of the many
blogs I’ve perused over the last few years, but I didn’t know anything about
it. It’s a standard 40% ABV, and the limited information on the bottle is
concerned with a legacy of “being enjoyed in society for over 250 years”.
Something about the website (www.hankeybannister.com)
– images of a top hat and a pocket watch – and the way they mention royal seals
of approval from Prince Regent William iv to George v suggest they are
referring to high society rather than
that to which we all belong.

Let’s finish this
introduction by ranking each competitor on price per cl – with the exception of
Hankey Bannister, which I didn’t buy:

1.Ballantine’s
12 – somewhat unsurprising that this should be the priciest. It comes in at
29.48p per centilitre (from Duty Free).

2.Bushmills
Original - 22.86p per centilitre, though
I seem to recall there was £4 off at Asda.

3.McKendrick’s
– 18.57p per centilitre, making it just 0.01p more expensive than…

4.Highland
Black 8 – 18.56p per centilitre.

5.Queen
Margot 5 – marginally cheaper than the focus of this piece at 18.41p per
centilitre.

6.Kenmore
5 – only 17.14p/cl this one, though that’s because I had a £4 voucher.
Otherwise it would be the same as the Bushmills.

7.Bell’s –
also at 17.14p per centilitre, but on this occasion it was at £3 off at Asda.

So now that
everyone’s had a bit of an introduction, we can move on to the contest. The
point of this exercise isn’t to find out who is the best overall – though I’m
sure we’ll inevitably come to that conclusion – but to determine how Aldi’s
Highland Black stacks up against products of a [mostly] similar class. For that
reason, the experiment will be conducted as a series of Highland Black versus… tests. We may find out very early on where
it stacks up against other brands without having to carry out a specific test,
but we shall determine that when we come to it.

Test 1 – Highland
Black vs Bushmills Original

This ended up being
the first test because Bushmills was the blend I’d had open for the longest.
There was about a double left in the bottle that, until deciding to do this
post, I’d been saving to soup up a disappointing can of lager.

Let’s see then; in
the glass these are almost identical in colour, with the Highland Black
possibly being slightly darker. On the nose, the Bushmills is sweet, while the
HB is very rough. Based on that, I’m inclined to worry about drinking a full
bottle of Aldi’s finest, but let’s get onto the tasting anyway…

On the palate, the
Bushmills is buttery with a hint of bran. It is sweet and quite pleasant. HB on
the other hand is light and reminiscent of a personal favourite, Ballantine’s
Finest, though it doesn’t follow this good initial impression with much. It
seems rough and it burns a little, but it does give good fumes.

Luckily, as the
tasting progressed, the HB began to grow on me, until ultimately, there wasn’t
enough in it so I had to call it a draw – and that means Aldi wins because it
is cheaper.

Test 2 – Highland
Black vs Ballantine’s 12 year old

The contents of the
Ballantine’s 12 are starting to wane also, so while this is easily the most
expensive bottle in the test and should easily outperform the HB, it still
needed to prove itself in the heat of competition. I have been enjoying the
Ballantine’s, as you’ll know from my earlier post, though I haven’t been
convinced it is as good as its cheaper and younger brother. Let’s see how it
fares against Aldi’s blend…

The HB is grainy on
the nose, in contrast to Ballantine’s malty sweetness, though on the palate, the HB is still giving great
fumes. I’m actually disappointed in the Ballantine’s, given what I remember
from drinking it so far. It is sweet with a bit of spice at the back of the
mouth, but it isn’t full of flavour. It is better on the finish though.

I conducted a second
tasting a few days later, but this time I tasted the Ballantine’s first, and
was surprised to find this seemed to have an effect on the outcome. The HB was
still giving great fumes, but in comparison there were one or two off notes
about the finish.

Overall then, the
Ballantine’s is marginally better, but certainly not in proportion to the
difference in price.

Test 3 – Highland
Black vs Bell’s

Bell’s gives good
fumes, and I have to say I’m surprised at how much I’ve been enjoying it. It
either really has improved over the last decade, or drinking it with ice ruins
it. You could say that about the HB too. I’ve been enjoying both much more than
I used to, and I find this very encouraging. I’m sure your whisky snobs will
continue to scoff at the idea of drinking either of these two blends, but for
my money, they provided excellent value. Bell’s is a little sweeter, perhaps a
little more complex, and I am going to say marginally better. Equally though,
it is a bit more expensive usually. You can pick it up in the sales for the
same price as Aldi’s HB, as I did, which means on this occasion, HB isn’t the
winner. But it isn’t by much.

Test 4 – Highland
Black vs Queen Margot 5

The Margot had no
nose to speak of, but initial impressions were that is was not unpleasant on
the palate. There may even be a hint of pears. I couldn’t actually separate
them on the occasion of direct comparison, so that was looking good for Lidl.

I tried the Margot
on its own a day or two later, and sadly it didn’t fare so well. It’s unduly
rough on entry, and while it’s not bad overall, you really have to taste the fuck out of it, to get any
benefit. And that amount of effort isn’t really worth it overall.

In response, I tried
the Highland Black on its own, and was pleased with its dry earthiness and its
sweetness. So, once again, the Highland Black is the victor.

Test 5 – Highland
Black vs Kenmore 5

You’d be hoping for
something special from Marks and Spencer, being as they are, purveyors of fine
foods. I was pleased to find it gives decent fumes with a nice hit of peat, but
the nose itself is a bit yeasty. It was fairly tasty, but a disappointingly
cheap alcohol feel detracted from that. There was also a slightly off note – a
very strong taste of cloves threatening to derail everything. Overall though,
the Kenmore is just too sweet for my personal taste and, again, I have to
declare Aldi the winner.

Test 6 – Highland
Black vs Hankey Bannister

Side by side, you’d
be hard pressed to pick a favourite from these two. Right now they are both
seeming like the kind of cheap blend you can swig casually in the early
afternoon without feeling you’re wasting your product. The Highland Black
probably edges it slightly with it’s marginally sweeter, lighter components,
while it’s cheap grain to the fore with the rough and burny Hankey Bannister.
I’m starting to feel that cheap blended scotch is all much of a muchness these
days, with there being little in the way of variation among the brands overall.

Test 7 – Highland
Black vs McKendrick’s

That leaves just one
more test – against the undisputed supermarket blended scotch champion. They
are almost identical in colour, but Asda’s product has a bit more caramel about
the nose – but in a nice way. Aldi’s product reveals a touch of menthol. On the
palate, McKendrick’s is actually marginally sweeter with good fumes and an
appley, spicy finish. There still isn’t much to separate them, but I’m actually
going for the current reigning Standard Supermarket Blend Champion on this one.
It actually reminds me of the 7 year old Fettercairn that I had been
enjoying for a while – light in flavour, but not quite as light in body.

Conclusion

I’ve just noticed a
startling omission. Why didn’t I save a bit of the Bell’s to try alongside the
McKendrick’s? What an idiot! Both have turned out to be marginally better than
the Highland Black, so it would be interesting to know how they would fare
against each other. I suppose that’s one for another time. I was going to say
that from memory, the Bell’s is probably better than the McKendricks, but I had
another glass of the McKendrick’s the other night, and it just never fails to
surprise and delight. A true budget gem. The Ballantine’s 12 is probably the
best overall, but again, the price has to count against it slightly – it just
isn’t that much better.

In all then, Aldi’s
Highland Black fares quite well. There are of course a wealth of blended
scotches available for around the same price point, and this one is better than
some, but not the overall best. If you want surprising quality and real value
for money, McKendrick’s is the budget blended scotch of choice.

Definitions

What happens when you zone out after having had a cheeky lunchtime pint.

Alcothusiast:

Not an alcoholic, someone who appreciates booze.

Anxiety, The:

The uneasy feeling that accompanies any noteworthy hangover.

Booze Buffet Mentality:

The propensity people have to go nuts whenever there's a free bar.

Booze Porn:Photos of alcohol.

Bread Chest:Not booze related, but this term describes the indigestion you get from eating too many bread products too quickly. Just putting it out there...

Crawler's Block:The inability to decide where to go next during a pub crawl - often resulting in crawl stagnation and someone saying, "shall we just have another one here?"

Crawl Stagnation:The result of failing to plan a pub crawl sufficiently - lack of a route, theme or over-familiarity with nearby pubs can all be contributing factors.

Excess Induced Alcohol Aversion:An intolerance for a drink caused (usually) by one occasion of overindulgence.

The Family:My whisky collection.

MOMA:

Moment of Maximum Appreciation. Every bottle has one. It's the time you drink it where you enjoy it most.

Old Man Pub:Traditional British pub, renowned for being quiet, cosy and frequented by old men. Much favoured by people who like a nice chat while they drink.Psychological Drinks Cabinet:Collective term relating to the kinds of alcoholic drinks a person has need for.Road Beers:

Cans of beer that you take with you when you go out, to consume on the way.

The 3 Types of Rum:White, gold and dark. Together they form the base of many a great cocktail.

About Me

Neil Cake is interested in all types of booze, but is by no means an authority or expert. Most of the time he's just trying to be funny, but he is learning, and enjoys sharing his adventures and what he learns on the Drink it How You Like it blog.
Thengyuverrymuuuuuch.